Book review - 1927 Flood changed lives and the south

Published: Saturday, October 5, 2013 at 1:00 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, October 3, 2013 at 6:11 p.m.

Before Hurricane Katrina, there was the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. More than 200 people died, more than 300,000 had to be rescued and, after local levees broke, tens and thousands of square miles were submerged under as much as 30 feet of water for months. At one point, the Mississippi River was 60 miles wide south of Memphis.

The flood sparked a mass migration of African-Americans to the North in search of work. It helped put Herbert Hoover in the White House. Hoover, who had led U.S. relief efforts in Europe after World War I, took control of the federal government's response to the disaster, such as it was.

It also left a literary legacy. The flood haunted William Alexander Percy's famous essay-memoir "Lanterns on the Levee." At one point, Percy, a friend of Hoover's, was in charge of flood relief for an area almost the size of New England. Randy Newman chronicled the flood in his song "Louisiana 1927" when there were "six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline."

Now the husband-and-wife writing team of Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly navigate the flood in their massive new novel "The Tilted World." It is a masterful effort.

Separately, the two have built quite a record. Franklin, who writes in the "Rough South" vein of the late Tim McLaurin and fellow Mississippian Larry Brown, is the author of a string of distinguished novels, including "Hell at the Breech" and "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter." Fennelly, an award-winning poet and essayist, heads the graduate creative writing program at the University of Mississippi.

"The Tilted World," however, makes the case that two heads can be better than one.

Their novel focuses on the tiny (fictional) town of Hobnob Landing, Miss., cradled in the bend of the Mississippi, just as the levees are about to be breached.

Two characters are the focus. Ted Ingersoll, a World War I veteran and blues guitarist turned Prohibition agent, finds a 6-month-old baby, the sole survivor of a shootout during a botched general-store robbery.

A former foundling, Ingersoll doesn't want to dump the kid (whom he names "Junior") into an orphanage. Thus, he hunts the countryside hoping to find someone in the midst of impending disaster.

He latches onto Dixie Clay Holliver, a young moonshiner and a crack shot who's still grieving the death of her little boy.

They make an unlikely romantic couple. He's a revenooer; she runs a still. Also, she's married. (Her husband, Jesse, is a big-talking philanderer who handles the marketing side of the business, leaving Dixie Clay in charge of production. She married him at 16 and has been repenting ever since.)

Nevertheless, a bond forms, and the two go through adventures as hilarious and frightening as anything Huck and Jim ever faced on their raft.

"The Tilted World" (a title with multiple meanings) overflows its banks with the violence and profanity typical of Franklin's earlier books. (In a disaster, people often behave very, very badly.) Dixie Clay, however, proves to be the strong, sympathetic female character who's often been missing in Franklin's solo work.

The result is a tale that deserves comparison to Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain," another literary novel with plenty of action. It should appeal to male and female readers equally.

<p>Before <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/hurricane"><b>Hurricane</b></a> Katrina, there was the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. More than 200 people died, more than 300,000 had to be rescued and, after local levees broke, tens and thousands of square miles were submerged under as much as 30 feet of water for months. At one point, the Mississippi River was 60 miles wide south of Memphis.</p><p>Nearly a million homes were destroyed.</p><p>The flood sparked a mass migration of African-Americans to the North in search of work. It helped put Herbert Hoover in the White House. Hoover, who had led U.S. relief efforts in Europe after World War I, took control of the federal government's response to the disaster, such as it was. </p><p>It also left a literary legacy. The flood haunted William Alexander Percy's famous essay-memoir "Lanterns on the Levee." At one point, Percy, a friend of Hoover's, was in charge of flood relief for an area almost the size of New England. Randy Newman chronicled the flood in his song "Louisiana 1927" when there were "six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline."</p><p>Now the husband-and-wife writing team of Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly navigate the flood in their massive new novel "The Tilted World." It is a masterful effort.</p><p>Separately, the two have built quite a record. Franklin, who writes in the "Rough South" vein of the late Tim McLaurin and fellow Mississippian Larry Brown, is the author of a string of distinguished novels, including "Hell at the Breech" and "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter." Fennelly, an award-winning poet and essayist, heads the graduate creative writing program at the University of Mississippi.</p><p>"The Tilted World," however, makes the case that two heads can be better than one.</p><p>Their novel focuses on the tiny (fictional) town of Hobnob Landing, Miss., cradled in the bend of the Mississippi, just as the levees are about to be breached.</p><p>Two characters are the focus. Ted Ingersoll, a World War I veteran and blues guitarist turned Prohibition agent, finds a 6-month-old baby, the sole survivor of a shootout during a botched general-store robbery.</p><p>A former foundling, Ingersoll doesn't want to dump the kid (whom he names "Junior") into an orphanage. Thus, he hunts the countryside hoping to find someone in the midst of impending disaster.</p><p>He latches onto Dixie Clay Holliver, a young moonshiner and a crack shot who's still grieving the death of her little boy.</p><p>They make an unlikely romantic couple. He's a revenooer; she runs a still. Also, she's married. (Her husband, Jesse, is a big-talking philanderer who handles the marketing side of the business, leaving Dixie Clay in charge of production. She married him at 16 and has been repenting ever since.)</p><p>Nevertheless, a bond forms, and the two go through adventures as hilarious and frightening as anything Huck and Jim ever faced on their raft. </p><p>"The Tilted World" (a title with multiple meanings) overflows its banks with the violence and profanity typical of Franklin's earlier books. (In a disaster, people often behave very, very badly.) Dixie Clay, however, proves to be the strong, sympathetic female character who's often been missing in Franklin's solo work.</p><p>The result is a tale that deserves comparison to Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain," another literary novel with plenty of action. It should appeal to male and female readers equally.</p><p><a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic14"><b>Ben Steelman</b></a>: 343-2208</p>